I said the other day that our family was not one to spend serious money on shoes.

I forgot the one exception.

In 1991, my dad was in his late 30s. He was very active in our regional men’s fast-pitch league (I have nothing but derisive things to say about so-called ‘slo-pitch’) and played a lot of racquetball and handball. He was good at all of them.

Somehow, he ended up with a pair of Rebook Pumps that Christmas. I think my Grammy bought them. All I remember is double-checking that the tag was not, in fact, made out to me.

I never got the Agassis, but Dad did give me the sweet-ass box those ATXes came in. I used it to store my NES games, and even that far removed from the actual shoe, I still felt cool as hell.